Retirement planning can be a daunting task, especially for those unfamiliar with investment strategies and financial markets. In its most basic form, retirement planning is saving, investing, and risk management, all carefully monitored and adjusted over time. 

In an effort to make retirement planning easier for the average worker, many employers and financial advisors recommend Target Date Funds (TDFs). These investment funds have grown in popularity due to their simplicity, professional supervision, and built-in risk management. 

Let’s take a closer look at Target Date Funds and discuss why they are considered one of the most effective retirement savings tools developed in the past 40 years for the average worker.

Are you looking to engage and retain your employees for longer? You’re not alone. In the current post-pandemic environment, companies are looking at every possible way to engage and retain employees longer. This applies most especially to hybrid or remote-based professionals.

A recent study found that turnover at small to midsize companies is significant, with a 25% chance of an employee leaving a company voluntarily or involuntarily before 15 months, and a 50% chance before 37 months. 

Used effectively, the vesting schedules in your retirement plans (401k, 403b, deferred compensation, and 457, to name a few) can be an excellent tool employers can use to improve employee retention.

The COVID-19 pandemic is finally getting under control. As more Americans get vaccinated, states are gradually lifting restrictions, and life is returning to pre-pandemic normalcy. Finally, individuals can get to the tasks they’ve been postponing for more than a year.

Unfortunately for employers looking to retain employees, some employees are now ready to find new jobs.

Turnover is a common occurrence throughout any given year. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, year-over-year turnover trends drastically reduced. Workers instead clung to their jobs as a way to maintain financial security, having seen countless others get furloughed or laid off.

Now, as the economy opens back up, employers are pushing for employees to return to the workplace. But, a significant number of employees are unwilling to return to the status quo that was established pre-pandemic.

It wasn’t long ago employers feared that the growing popularity of more portable employee benefits such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) might lead to a drop in workforce loyalty and employee retention.

Coupled with the ACA’s provision striking down preexisting conditions, HR professionals were fearful this would cause an exodus of workers who perhaps weren’t loyal out of choice, but rather because of their employer-sponsored healthcare coverage and yet-to-vest retirement benefits.

It turns out that these fears have been mostly unfounded. In fact, the rate at which employed workers move to new jobs has been depressed for more than a decade and has only recently approached levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

More precisely, and according to a Wall Street Journal article published earlier this week, 5.8% of U.S. workers switched jobs in the first quarter of 2018 (the most recent period available), compared to an average of 7% per quarter back in 2000 and 3% per quarter in 2009, the latter of which represents an historic low during this period. 

Today's still relatively low level of job switching has economists calling into question a key economic model of our time, called the Phillips Curve. It predicts that inflation rises as unemployment falls, but that hasn't happened lately. So what's going on? And what does this have to do with employee retention?

The term “work-life balance” has gotten quite a bit of buzz in recent years, thanks in part to the new priorities millennials are bringing to the workplace. This idea captures the desire to work and grow in a career, but also the desire to enjoy one’s life outside of work — with the goal of creating a meaningful sense of balance between the two.

However, it’s not just millennials who crave a healthy balance between their working lives and time spent outside the office.

The workforce is currently juggling three different generations (not including the bookend demographic groups of Generation Z and The Silent Generation) who view the working world in different ways. It’s important to define what “work-life balance” truly means to each of them, as it may change how employers can effectively motivate employees.

Many employees feel like they have to check-in with work even when they’re supposed to be enjoying paid time off. More often than not, this is a cultural issue within a company.

Supervisors might be checking-in and sending emails in the evening or on weekends. This leads their direct reports to believe they need to respond immediately, and they may even start adopting these behaviors themselves. 

Yet, research has shown time and time again that workers need frequent breaks and unfortunately, Americans leave a lot of that paid time off on the table every year. It might seem like workers would be more productive if they aren’t using all their vacation time, but in reality, skipping our vacations actually makes us less productive. To keep employees operating in top shape, we need to encourage them to enjoy their downtime — and perhaps it’s fitting to begin with the July 4th holiday. Here are 5 ways to encourage employees to enjoy their independence...and their paid time off this weekend.

Paid time off is one of the most commonly provided benefits as well as one of the most highly regarded.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that more than 70 percent of employees have at least one form of paid time off, and the rate is much higher among certain types of employers such as large private companies and local, state and federal government entities.

In fact, in a Glassdoor survey, vacation and paid time off proved to be more important for employees than pay raises. Yet despite the desire for it, the United States remains far behind much of the world in both providing and using this benefit.

Even though there’s been a recent uptick in the number of days U.S. employees are taking off annually, they still take very few days off -- and that’s not good for anyone.

The following is an exploration of why paid time off is important to offer and why it's important to take, along with what’s normal in the U.S. and throughout the world. 

HR professionals know the value of staying connected and informed better than almost anyone else in the workplace.

Often asked to stretch resources and "make do" with limited budgets, HR professionals have learned to survive by being resourceful and self-sufficient.

Life-long learners at heart, those who work in the field of human resources often tap into the wide range of information resources now available at their fingertips, thanks to the internet. 

As follow-up to a blog post we published last year, "Best Twitter Hashtags for HR Directors to Follow", here are some of our favorite resources beyond Twitter, spanning associations, books, podcasts and blogs.

As new generations enter the workforce, managers must learn how to lead diverse groups with various backgrounds, values, work ethics, expectations and motivations.  

Consider that our current workforce is comprised primarily of three generations: Baby Boomers, Gen-xers and Millennials (not counting the bookend demographic groups of Generation Z and The Silent Generation). Managing these different generational groups requires getting into their mindsets to understand what makes them tick — and what makes them more productive and satisfied at work.

Battle of the Boomers and Millennials

Each generational group in the workplace today has been influenced by a combination of profound societal events, demographic trends and cultural phenomena unique to the time in which they came of age.

Because these differences are most pronounced between the oldest and youngest in our workforce, we’ll focus on baby boomers and millennials — even though Gen-Xers are a unique demographic all to themselves.

Maintaining a competitive edge often comes down to retaining a talented workforce. The growing popularity of so-called “portable” employee benefits, such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), certainly hasn't made this any easier.

Employers trying to entice employees to remain loyal may want to focus their efforts on providing benefits which are simply too good to surrender. Offering benefits that accrue significant value over time, or improve with tenure, will help keep employees from abandoning that progress for greener pastures, lest they have to start over someplace else.

How the ACA Impacted Employee Retention

Prior to the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there was considerably less job mobility for many Americans with pre-existing health conditions. The moment insurance carriers were barred from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions, the need for individuals to stay with a company for insurance reasons essentially vanished. Many employees who were previously stuck in their jobs for fear of losing benefits were now free to explore other opportunities.

Similarly, many budding entrepreneurs set off to start their own businesses while acquiring individual health insurance via the ObamaCare exchange or through other means. One could argue that this new freedom was a benefit to both employers and employees — after all, who really wants an employee who is sticking around just because of benefits? Nevertheless, this new found “employee mobility” has made the search for "sticky" benefits all the more important.